Latest MS2020 Update - "Patience Grasshopper"

[renault]

I have just installed the latest MS2020 Update #5. It installed seamlessly and I encountered no problems 

 

One of the validation steps I go through with updates is to use the same scenery area each time to check if I have any issues.  I use KSBA , Santa Barbara for this.

Yes there were a few minor settings that got changed, but nothing that took more than a minute of two to check and reset.

 

In this case - a bit of patience and space to let Asobo sort out previous update problems has been more than amply rewarded.

My initial reaction was "Oh wow ....  it's back". The "AA" bug seems to have been put to rest and performance and frame rates seems slightly better than before.

 

But I will let you be the judge of my initial screenshots.

 

And for those of you who have also been waiting patiently for VR , I noticed that  the UserCfg.opt settings file has now got a new section starting at VRScalingOptions followed by a very extensive parameter settings  called GraphicsVR.  .

 

I don't do VR but I am pleased for those who have been waiting.  So complete speculation on my part but it looks like its coming soon

 

Cheers

R

 

 

 

 

[flyingleaf]

Great shots good idea to compare. All went smooth for me too. 

[renault]

11 minutes ago, flyingleaf said:

Great shots good idea to compare. All went smooth for me too. 

Thanks

I'm glad to hear that it was seamless as well.  It's a simple thing to do, but it makes it much easier to check when something seems to be amiss.

Thanks again

Pete

[BradB]

RIP - Press any Key ...........

[Sniper31]

Great shots Pete. I am one of the many that this update has caused MSFS to NOT work at all now. I hope they fix it soon so I can fly and see what you are seeing   

[Iain Emms]

Looking great Pete just updated myself.

cheers

Iain

[John Mac]

Wonderful shots Pete. Updated without any hassle but noticed a little stuttering beginning to creep in. Any changes to the usercfg.opt file were left untouched.

Will have a good look around tomorrow.

John.

[lifejogger]

Looks great Pete!!!!!!  Are these updates automatic when you open MSFS 2020 or do you have to do them manually?

[TigerTigerM]

5 minutes ago, lifejogger said:

Looks great Pete!!!!!!  Are these updates automatic when you open MSFS 2020 or do you have to do them manually?

Automatic

I don't think you can bypass it once you open MSFS.

BTW, suggest you backup your Community folder, reports of odd things happening there.

TTM

[TigerTigerM]

15 hours ago, renault said:

Thanks

I'm glad to hear that it was seamless as well.  It's a simple thing to do, but it makes it much easier to check when something seems to be amiss.

Thanks again

Pete

Out of curiosity, can you fly your A320 Neo in a different livery?

TTM

[renault]

15 hours ago, BradB said:

RIP - Press any Key ...........

Talk about a "Pavlov" moment ..... I keep looking for it in the sequence and it's not there 

 

14 hours ago, Sniper31 said:

Great shots Pete. I am one of the many that this update has caused MSFS to NOT work at all now. I hope they fix it soon so I can fly and see what you are seeing   

Hi Langdon @Sniper31

 

I am really sorry to hear that.  I had my first CTD  this morning when switching aircraft from the default Bonzana to the default Diamond DA62

 

Caveat - I bought my MS from the Microsoft store

 

I did the following

 

1) In Windows search bar type "Microsoft Flight Simulator"

2) Select "App settings"

3) Scroll down to "Repair" and click it.

     Concurrently with clicking "Repair" MS2020 started up with the spinning wheel beside the "Repair" button. It got to the Asobo screen and there a checkmark appeared  beside the "Repair" key and then CTD 

4) I then started up MS and the Diamond loaded just fine and I flew it for an hour , AP on and all. I then changed aircraft to another and loaded and ran it without issues

5) If "Repair" doesn't help then click "Reset" and try it.

 

The following might also  be worth a try.

 

Also (and I always do this) make sure that the MS Store is completely up to date  - keep clicking it until you get the Checkbox and the comment "You're good to go"

Also do you have the following apps showing as being updated recently  as well

 

XBox Game bar - updated to version 5.420.10222.0

XBox Live in Game -  updated to version 1.24.10001.0

Xbox Console Companion - updated to version 48.70.21001.0

 

Next go to settings , Gaming, XBox Networking and check the following

 

Connection status 

Internet connection: Connected

XBox Live Services : Up and running

 

XBox multiplayer usually isn't important unless you are flying with others (I have it turned off on MS)

but it usually shows "Toledo - Unable to quantify" on my machine. Click "Fix it" connects properly , but normally I don't fuss it 

 

If you don't show a connection , especially to XBox networking try logging in again , using the credentials you used when you purchased MS

 

Lastly, and this is a windows thing that I do on a daily basis, but again it is worth a try. I always do it before I update anything

 

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_other-update/system-file-check-sfc-scan-and-repair-system-files/bc609315-da1f-4775-812c-695b60477a93

 

Steps:

(This is all in the link above)

 

1) Type cmd in the search bar

2) Select run as administrator . This creates an "elevated" command window. If you  don't do this then the command will not work.

 

3)  Copy the following and using crtl+v paste it at the cursor in the Dos window & if necessary press enter.  This will do a complete scan of your windows system looking for corrupted files and if found repair them. 

 

               sfc /scannow

 

If you find it repaired some , rerun it (possibly several times if necessary) until you get the message that Windows did not find any integrity violations

 

4) Now do the same with the following  (you only have to run it once after " sfc /scannow " in my experience:

 

    DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

 

5) Now reboot the computer

 

Now go to "Check for Updates" and make sure that your system is completely up to date, This is necessary because during sfc /scannow if windows finds an integrity violation it replaces the file with a cached one that was created at the time of the last system install/update.

 

The "Check for Updates" step ensures that all is up to date, but what I've found is that it also ensures that the update works properly. I'm not at all a Windows expert, but it seems that if Windows encounters a corrupted file, it doesn't necessarily update it correctly . 

 

Also when you are updating , as previous members have suggested removing all addons from the Community folder is a very good process to follow.  The MSFS Addon Linker  makes this process very easy.  It is a very intuitive, easy to understand , install and use utility and I really recommend it. 

 

Once installed, any addon into the Community folder can be added or removed simply with a mouse click. It makes it really easy to determine if you have something like a livery causing a CTD (I've had that one as well) , as well as being able to remove All  your addons from the Community folder before you do an update.

 

MS/Asobo is also aware that some addons will interfere with an installation  and cause a corrupted install. However it seems to be a bit of a hit and miss situation which will cause an issue.  This utility makes this process very easy and the last thing it does is really important for me. It allows me to have everything clearly organized outside of the community folder.

 

The way the utility works is that it creates symbolic links from your folders to the community folder , exactly that same as Orbx Central does with Orbx products that are stored in a specified folder  external to the Community folder.  Symbolic links are like shortcuts , except that the refer to directories/folder structures

 

When you click to "remove" all addons from the community folder it simply removes the symbolic link . Your data is never affected. When you click to "add it back in" it simply puts the symbolic link back.

 

There is also an issue with the Community folder that as you add more and more addons , the load time for MS can start to increase very significantly. 

The addon linker allows you to manage this process very easily.  For me it is an excellent example of a fit for purpose utility that works exactly as intended with no drama. The best part is the price its freeware  (available at www.flightsim.to )

   

Sorry for the long comment, but I hope that some of this may be of help to you

Cheers

Pete

 

PS - any specific questions, please send me a PM. I will be happy to help if I can

 

 

10 hours ago, Iain Emms said:

Looking great Pete just updated myself.

cheers

Iain

Hope it went well 

Cheers

Pete

 

8 hours ago, John Mac said:

Wonderful shots Pete. Updated without any hassle but noticed a little stuttering beginning to creep in. Any changes to the usercfg.opt file were left untouched.

Will have a good look around tomorrow.

John.

Hi John

 

I haven't seen that . It is still super smooth for me.

Fingers crossed

Cheers

Pete  

 

4 hours ago, lifejogger said:

Looks great Pete!!!!!!  Are these updates automatic when you open MSFS 2020 or do you have to do them manually?

Thanks John and thanks TTM @TigerTigerM

Cheers

Pete     

 

 

 

 

 

 

[renault]

19 minutes ago, TigerTigerM said:

Out of curiosity, can you fly your A320 Neo in a different livery?

TTM

Hi TTM

 

It's broken in this update unfortunately . What you have to do is to close down MS, restart it and then select the new livery and all is good 

 

It applies to any aircraft.  But what also works but is a little more painful , is to select a different aircraft, load a new session , then go back to start a new session and go to the Neo and select what you want.

 

The first approach is easier 

 

Hopefully it will get fixed soon. 

Cheers

Pete

[renault]

17 minutes ago, renault said:

Hi TTM

 

It's broken in this update unfortunately . What you have to do is to close down MS, restart it and then select the new livery and all is good 

 

It applies to any aircraft.  But what also works but is a little more painful , is to select a different aircraft, load a new session , then go back to start a new session and go to the Neo and select what you want.

 

The first approach is easier 

 

Hopefully it will get fixed soon. 

Cheers

Pete

 

Update:

Haven't tried this yet but it appears there is a workaround 

 

https://flightsim.to/blog/workaround-patch-1-10-7-0-unable-to-select-liveries/

[Sniper31]

@renault Thanks for all the detailed information (do you work for MS...lol). I have tried just about everything on that you put on there. There is a much bigger problem, and Asobo/MS are aware of it if you look at the MSFS forum regarding CTD issues with the new update. It seems to be related to USB device profiles, but that is still not for sure yet. LOTS of users are digging into the problem over on the MSFS forum, and Asobo has said they are aware, but no fix as of yet. 

 

Cheers,

Landon

[renault]

4 minutes ago, Sniper31 said:

@renault Thanks for all the detailed information (do you work for MS...lol). I have tried just about everything on that you put on there. There is a much bigger problem, and Asobo/MS are aware of it if you look at the MSFS forum regarding CTD issues with the new update. It seems to be related to USB device profiles, but that is still not for sure yet. LOTS of users are digging into the problem over on the MSFS forum, and Asobo has said they are aware, but no fix as of yet. 

 

Cheers,

Landon

 Indeed it is . I've seen speculation that there will be a "hot fix" out for it as soon as they work out what is wrong.

 

BTW here is a video on the addon linker. Bit lengthy but gives a very good idea what it does

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqLpvpCDRws

 

Cheers

Pete

[Sniper31]

7 minutes ago, renault said:

 Indeed it is . I've seen speculation that there will be a "hot fix" out for it as soon as they work out what is wrong.

 

BTW here is a video on the addon linker. Bit lengthy but gives a very good idea what it does

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqLpvpCDRws

 

Cheers

Pete

Appreciate the link, but I don't even have any addon's installed right now, other than MS ones like the Japan update. Nothing third party. The few Orbx addons I have for MSFS are not installed right now either. My community folder is empty.

 

Landon

[renault]

1 hour ago, Sniper31 said:

Appreciate the link, but I don't even have any addon's installed right now, other than MS ones like the Japan update. Nothing third party. The few Orbx addons I have for MSFS are not installed right now either. My community folder is empty.

 

Landon

Hot fix out very soon , possibly later today 

 

See you 

Pete

 

 

[Sniper31]

Good stuff Pete, thanks for the update!

 

Landon

[BradB]

XBox Game bar - updated to version 5.420.10222.0

XBox Live in Game -  updated to version 1.24.10001.0

Xbox Console Companion - updated to version 48.70.21001.0

 

This YT creator does not use the above :

 

 

Your thoughts Pete .

 

John

[renault]

1 hour ago, BradB said:

XBox Game bar - updated to version 5.420.10222.0

XBox Live in Game -  updated to version 1.24.10001.0

Xbox Console Companion - updated to version 48.70.21001.0

 

This YT creator does not use the above :

 

 

Your thoughts Pete .

 

John

 

Hi John

I am my way out for the rest of the afternoon, so no real comments at this point. Just watched the first minute or so though .... 

 

It might be helpful  preface this with the comment that the author is not using a MS Store version (possibly steam) as in the MS store version the flightsimulator.exe  file is not user accessible as he shows.   I purchased my version of MS from the MS store and that app is stored in an area called the windows apps hidden folder that requires trusted installer status to be able to interface with.

 

Also, there seems to be some confusion regarding MS running full screen.  MS runs in what is called a borderless window. 

This is a good link for understanding what this means https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/windowed-fullscreen-borderless-modes/

 

So even though it appears  that it is running full screen it isn't unfortunately. I say unfortunately , because I tried to change it in the UserCfg.opt file (entry right at the top) but it doesn't accept it. The reason for changing is when running in a window (borderless or otherwise) resources are still shared with other windows & apps that are running in the background. This implies that for best performance with MS you should minimize the number of other apps that are running , especially if they are using their own separate windows. On the other hand, true full screen mode, means that all the resources are directed exclusively to that application which for this kind of app might be more preferable.

 

Unfortunately I did get beyond that point so I  quickly put a few  thoughts together

 

 Using "the above" is something that was done entirely by the MS store updater. I always run up "get updates" to make sure that anything related to XBox & XBox networking is up to date before I install a patch/update in MS since  as I understand it XBox is a root application that MS2020 uses to communicate with the MS servers. I was told this in response to a Zendesk issue I had. I simply mentioned it in my comment as it is something that I do.

 

I have never had "stuttering issues" , touch wood and the latest update for me is no different. 

 

And from what I briefly saw a few minutes ago, the CTD issue seems to be related to a usb device polling issue (previous incarnations of MS simply ignored button assignment tags in the  controller profile if they were missing, whereas this update doesn't, and the result was a CTD). So speculatively , the hot fix will probably be related to that, but who knows.  

 

Thanks to Landons comments and feedback it is obvious that he was on top of things. My comments were simply that these are the things that I check and so far I have not had install issues and am overall quite pleased with the performance I am getting.  By documenting them  I had hoped that some of my thoughts/etc might be of use/interest to my fellow Orbx colleagues if they were having difficulty.

 

MS2020 is a complex beast and to compound the entire situation, there are an infinite number  of permutations/combinations  of things that are out there on peoples machines. Even simple things , such as what other software do you use , which also adds its own drivers etc for things that it does , may interfere with what is going on with respect to other applications. 

 

I only say this to simply point out that for any software developer  be it Orbx, MS/Asobo, or a freelancer independent has a daunting task to try to make sure that their product works seamlessly. In this respect an XBox has one huge advantage over a PC. It is a very controlled environment from a hardware perspective and also that it is a "total system" environment. 

 

By that I mean that the entire computing system has been put together to work as seamlessly as possible and in as much of a balanced mode as possible. By contrast , it is possible in a PC to have  a very overclocked cpu interfacing with a MB with slow memory feeding a gpu which may be starving for data as a result while struggling with data acquisition issues from a remote server may result in a situation which may not be optimal. 

 

It may not be the software that is the issue in this case.  All I am saying is if you want the optimal performance for the hardware you have, all things have to work in a balanced fashion.  And unfortunately, to paraphrase the "father of Orbx, JV" who said many years ago, in computing good performance isn't cheap , and it is tricky to achieve.

 

So I am continually amazed that it does install/work as well as it does for most people , but not surprised when it doesn't

 

But it does look like a very interesting "watch" as they say and I will certainly have a look at it later.

Thanks for pointing it out

 

All the best

Pete

[renault]

Hi again John @BradB

 

So I had to wait for my wife and sat outside in the sunshine , properly socially distancing and watched this on my phone. What a great way to enjoy the afternoon

 

My first reaction is , this is very good . In fact the "methodology" is what I did over a period of a day and a bit.  It is a good resource and coupled with the tips and techniques section that others and myself have contributed to recently where we have "fleshed out detail"  on most of his comments it is a good approach I feel.

 

Just a few specific comments.

 

I think possibly he has mixed up what Anisotropic filtering does verses Antialiasing. 

 

Here is a video (short & to the point) on anisotropic filtering  from Linus Tec Tips even though it was made in 2013

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzeJlBomZ_s

 

And again from the same time vintage on Antialiasing - physical concept is still the same, but we've come a long way in the 7 years since the video was made

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqi0114mwtY&list=LL0arxX7oiwsIxfn6oS5KbvA&index=4389

 

So yes, both do similar things in terms of correcting images , but in my experience as well as noted by Linus, Anisotropic filtering has always had minimal impact on gpu load, which is a bit different than was mentioned in the above MS2020 video. 

 

The important thing I found (pointed out to me by Dario @Dariobased on his experience) is that setting Anisotropic filtering to off in Nvidia Control Panel overrides the MS2020 setting. So either setting it to "controlled by application" or ON in NVCP seems to be best. Dario is using two monitors at higher resolution  and I use one(at 1080p) and our experience was there was no measurable impact with it on at 16x or off.

 

Of course there is a huge difference between 1080p and 4K in terms of Gpu load. I am hoping that when the next update (corresponding with the XBoxX release) to DX12 will also incorporate Nvidia's DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) 2.0 will also be offered . As I mentioned in another comment , it will mean that using 4K one can render 720p for 1080p or 1080p for 4K and the AI Neural Network in DLSS will recreate the upscaled image.

 

So you get the benefit of running at the lower resolution with the benefit of the higher resolution and all that brings. As I mentioned in another thread - does it work?  I have a totally different game and I have tested it and yes, it works well, really , really well. It is a proprietary technique for Nvidia and running on an RTX card (2000/3000 series) the DLSS along with ray tracing is handled by the Ray Tracing Tensor cores which are unique to these cards.  At the present time with DX11 they are idle and are unused.  So if that is done it would be a nice feature. I wrote the Zen Desk about it several months ago and the answer was encouraging , so fingers crossed.

 

Also on my system, clouds don't have an impact (I have it set on Ultra) but I use a slightly different setting approach on one aspect .

 

For years now I have found with other simulators that locking the fps to a value of 30 gives a very fluid experience overall. It absolutely minimizes stutters and gives a very good overall experience.  The reason for this is that if your overall system can basically , most of the time,  render above 30 fps, then locking the fps to a value of 30  externally , gives you hardware and rendering overhead. 

 

Lets use this as a little example.  Say I am running at 45 fps, but then my fps due to load drops down to 31 and up again and down again etc.  As humans our genetic heritage is that we have been programmed to notice motion changes  especially in shadows  as generally things that could do us serious bodily harm may be lurking there.

 

In other words a lower fps if it is rock solid is many times a more pleasing experience than a higher one which has more wide swings in fps . So in the little example, if my fps is locked at 30 the variation in fps above that will have no impact on how our system is running.  There are various ways to do this, Nick Cooper has commented to me that he likes RTSS for setting the fps to this value, whereas I simply use Nvidia Control panel and in the setting "maximum frame rate", I set it to a value of 30.

 

I have spent many hours now , running my system both unlocked (generally fps from 45 - 65) and externally locked at 30  and I can't tell any difference. Although I can hear it .

 

I also carefully performance monitor my system both with GPU-Z and Nvidia performance overlay which is real time monitoring and unlocked my gpu usage on average is about 99 - 100% which is what it is designed to do, boast clock is at about 1850 mhz , power consumption is 175W, temps are stable at 70C, but I can definitely hear that the fans are working.

 

Locking externally my gpu usage varies from about 50% to 99% with an average around 56-85%, boost clock goes up and stabilizes at 1920 mhz, power consumption is at around 160 - 165W and temperature is around 62 -65C. And my system is totally quiet.

 

So following the video , and  the tips and techniques comments will allow you to get some nice rendering settings. Then I would suggest to try locking the fps externally to MS at 30 , go flying and then move the sliders up a notch and monitor what happens. In my particular case on my system using this approach I have my settings on Ultra and I am very pleased with the performance which is very fluid. As I said I use a 1080p monitor and I think the screen images are reasonable as well.

 

If you have a higher resolution system , then this will give you additional flexibility with settings to maintain both a visually nice image as well as a fluid simulation experience.

 

And that is the little bit I know about such things.

It is a good video and an excellent resource for our colleagues John 

Great find sir!

 

Cheers & thanks

Pete 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[renault]

Oh yes one additional comment.

 

Apologies to all those reading this thread.

 

A ltitle bit above, I did a cut and paste of the MS/Asobo Twitter comment into a note when I was on my phone.

It looked fine there, but on my computer it is very large.

Apologies to all 

Cheers  

Pete